


Woke up in your new apartment, (in your twin-size bed), coffee starting, (don't remember much)

by DingyAntelope58



Series: Short Prompts Series [1]
Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Mild Blood, Other, Reality Bending, Romantic Fluff, Trans Zack (Carmen Sandiego 2019)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29389659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DingyAntelope58/pseuds/DingyAntelope58
Summary: Ivy remembers this room. Very well.Navy blue walls. Polished hardwood floor. Permanently unmade bed. Candy wrappers littering her desk. Ignored homework piled up next to her laundry basket. Tattered schoolbag. Weathered guitar. Zack’s books piled into her shelves, overflowing the house. Led Zeppelin playing from her stereo. She wanders around the cramped space, effortlessly gliding between areas. A picture, one of the few framed, sits on the desk at the end of her bed. She picks it up, inspecting the photo.---PROMPT:- What is with the world today, the wicked games that people play, the wars the greed they waste away, yeah it's sad (it's sad) It's sad- Cult of Dionysus by The Orion Experience- dreams and nightmares
Relationships: Ivy & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep, Ivy & Zack (Carmen Sandiego), Ivy/Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep
Series: Short Prompts Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2158941
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	Woke up in your new apartment, (in your twin-size bed), coffee starting, (don't remember much)

**Author's Note:**

> So this story has mention of Ivy being dosed by an enemy with a hallucinogenic gas called Bliss (the one in Far Cry 5) that causes  
> \- vivid hallucinations  
> \- amnesia  
> \- intense delirium  
> \- sedation  
> And there's much mention of transphobia and pre-transition life.

_Ivy remembers this room. Very well._

_Navy blue walls. Polished hardwood floor. Permanently unmade bed. Candy wrappers littering her desk. Ignored homework piled up next to her laundry basket. Tattered schoolbag. Weathered guitar. Zack’s books piled into her shelves, overflowing the house. Led Zeppelin playing from her stereo. She wanders around the cramped space, effortlessly gliding between areas. A picture, one of the few framed, sits on the desk at the end of her bed. She picks it up, inspecting the photo._

_Zack and her. Very young, no older than 14. At Agganis Arena, watching a match with their father. Her arm slung over his shoulder, their faces lit up in grins. When his hair reached his shoulders, and hers was tied into a bun and undercut. Before… all the shit that happened after. She puts it back, smiling tiredly. Zack destroyed many of those photos years later, or at least removed himself from them. That one stayed around, too precious for him to rid of (despite Ivy’s insistence that she would gladly see it gone if it made him comfortable). They lost it when they fled Boston with Carmen, criminals hot on their tail and thirsty for retribution. It’s bittersweet, to see it in this dream._

_“You’re here” a voice croaks from the doorway. She turns, curious and wary. 15 year old Zack. Hair clipped as short as possible, loose hoodie, stifled twinkle in his eyes. Before their parents ever knew, before either of them had come out. The discomfort always rolling off him in pulsing waves._

_“Hey” she sighs. It’s one of these dreams, a past traumatic event instead of a future ‘what if?’. He shuffles closer and flops onto her bed, hunched in on himself. He’s shorter than her, but not by much. Ivy was always the short one in their family, even before his transition or adulthood._

_“Hi” he whispers, rubbing his face. It’s weird, how even dreamworld Zack has the same quirks and habits as real Zack. Maybe it’s a thing with her brain, not anyone else’s._

_“Is this… that day?” she asks, dreading the answer._

_“Yup” he groans, scrubbing at the tears of blood already running down his cheek, forming into the raw wound that sprouted on his cheek that day. The one that stills sits in a small scar. She wipes it away with the back of her hand and tilts her head curiously, eyebrows furrowed._

_“This dream is different. Isn’t it?” she asks him, and he nods, left side of his lips twitching into that dimpled and weak smile. She looks at the open door, where the plaster falls away to reveal weathered red brick and steel. Her new home._

_“Do you like your new home? More than this one?” Zack croaks hoarsely, in his squeaking and cracking voice. She purses her lips, gently biting on the inside of her lower lip as she ponders over the question._

_“I guess. It’s safer, and you’re happy, and I’m happy too. But this… had such good memories. Remember when we were 13, and we sat on the floor there?” she asks, pointing at the floor in front of her cupboard. “And we picked out your name? We rejected Elliot, James, Peter, Hamish, Charles, Xander, Augustus. And then you said Zachary, and I called you an old man, so you shortened it to Zack?” she continues. He nods, face brightening and eyes crinkling in his Bambi Smile._

_“That’s one of my favourite moments. In my life” she admits. He wipes away another tea, crystal clear instead of garnet red._

_“You should go through the door. Back to your life now” he tells her, sadness bleeding into his tone. She wraps him into a loose side-hug, smiling softly at him. He jokingly tries to push her away, but she only tightens her grip, adding a second time as he dramatically whines out something about being allergic to affection._

_“This is my life too, Zack. And you’re in both. But you’re happier in that one. And I can’t stay here forever” she argues. His face falls, fear crackling across his face._

_“Come back soon, okay?” he pleads, gripping her hand tightly in his. She squeezes it back and presses her nose into his cropped hair._

_“Of course, dumbass. Love ya” she mumbles, speaking the words into the crown of his head._

_“I love you too or whatever” he laughs. She stands up, walking through the door into their warehouse home._

_“GEME-” a voice back in the home yells, and she whips around to defend her brother too late, as her mind and body are dragged back into unconsciousness._

“What the fuuuuuuuck?” Ivy groans into her bedsheets, head pounding like a skull-wide bruise. The sunlight is blinding, painful enough that she hisses in anger and shuffles away, tearing a pillow over her head. It’s oppressively hot, a summer sunbeam pressing down on her body like a weight. The bed and her clothes are slick with sweat, and it smells like Carmen, coffee and maple syrup. She tries to sit up but a wave of dizziness and intense spinning washes over her and she collapses, groaning again. She tries to shuffle away from the sunbeam, overheating and whining in annoyance.

“Are you supposed to be a vampire? Because you’re a little uncoordinated to pull it off” another voice in the room jokes. The blinds snap shut, the room bathed in darkness. She pants, rubbing sweat out of her eyes with the flat sheets.

“Cahm?” she hums, slowly rolling over and groaning again. She looks up at Carmen, still breathing heavily. She’s dressed in a loose button up and sleep shorts, two mugs of coffee clasped in her hands. Her hair sits loose around her shoulders, looking far lighter and softer after her recent trim.

“You need to just relax, Ivy. You’ve slept for a long time, and you’re still not well” she implores, setting down the mug with Brigitte surrounded by cats on the nightstand and taking a sip of her red one (from a women’s hospital in Australia, probably. Carmen has way too many red mugs)

“What the fucking hell shit happen’d?” she asks. Carmen laughs, putting her now empty cup on the nightstand and climbing into bed, snuggling into Ivy’s side.

“You got hit with a very large dose of Bliss. Some new drug from America VILE got their paws on” she explains. “You started hallucinating a lot, and then got delirious, and then passed out. The best treatment is to just sleep it off and drink plenty of water. And some coffee. It’s not addictive, don’t worry” she continues, peppering her cheek with chaste kisses.

“I knew the dream was different this time” she complains, pulling Carmen into a hug, pressing her lips to her collarbone and kissing it.

“Is sweating a side effect of the drug?. You absolutely reek and you’re soaked in it. You need to shower” Carmen adds, jokingly shoving her away.

“Well if _someone_ didn’t leave those blinds open then we wouldn’t have that problem, would we?” she snaps. Carmen laughs, kissing her hair and scraping away the sweat with the useless flat sheets.

“We can bathe when you’re able to stand without collapsing” she promises. Ivy groans and falls back, smiling at her girlfriend’s faint giggles of amusement.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone can submit a prompt, down in the comments below! Remember, there are 3 parts.  
> \- the song lyric or verse  
> \- the song and artist  
> \- one additional tag (angst, hurt/comfort, fluff, etc)  
> You *can* recommend a pairing or character, but if they're one I will not write (redcrackle especially) or I haven't seen the show then I'll pick something else sorry.  
> And I won't write smut. Sorry. My dad follows this account...


End file.
